Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection control technique in wireless communication.
Description of the Related Art
Wireless LAN communication systems, which are represented by IEEE802.11 standard series, are widely used. With a wireless LAN, a base station called an access point (hereinafter, an AP) and a station (hereinafter, a STA) that exists within an area within which a radio wave of the AP can reach and that is in a wirelessly connected state establish a connection, establish a network, and wirelessly communicate with each other. In recent years, wireless communication devices having functions of the aforementioned access point and station have emerged. This kind of wireless communication device can form a network by serving as an access point by itself and establish connections to other terminals, while being connected, as a terminal, to a network formed by another access point.
Methods have emerged for performing communication not only with a simple wireless network configuration using conventional APs and STAs, but also in various modes of wireless LAN network. For example, Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) is a technique for communication between STAs that are connected to an AP, using a direct connection (direct link). IEEE Std 802.11-2012 describes a technique of establishing a direct connection between wireless STAs by transmitting and receiving control data for setting TDLS via an AP between wireless LAN terminals. Since each wireless LAN terminal directly communicates with a partner terminal by establishing a direct connection, communication can be performed that is not constrained due to the capability of the AP.
With TDLS, a channel for direct communication between STAs is not fixed to a channel (hereinafter referred to as a “base channel”) of a wireless network configured by the AP and can be switched to another channel (hereinafter referred to as an “off-channel”). As a result, for example, even when the AP operates with a 2.4-GHz band, a STA can directly communicate with a partner STA by using a 5-GHz band channel.
In the present situation, when a direct connection by means of TDLS is established, a consideration is not given to the influence thereof on other connections that have been established at this time point. That is to say, for example, examination has not been conducted regarding the problem in the case where, when a wireless communication device has established a connection to another STA by serving as an AP while being connected to another AP by serving as a STA, the wireless communication device further establishes a direct connection by means of TDLS with still another STA.
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned problem, and provides a technique for controlling, in a communication device, a direct connection to another communication device, based on a state of other connections.